NEWARK — More than 2,000 notices will soon be mailed to potential jurors in Essex County for the Sept. 7 murder trial of the final defendant to face justice in the Newark schoolyard slayings. But before that can happen, the judge in the case wants to know the status of a deal the prosecutor’s office extended to the defendant, Gerardo Gomez, that calls for 30 years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea.

After a hearing today in Superior Court in Newark, defense attorney Michael Robbins had his answer: "Someone on the first floor ought to start licking the stamps," he said.

Robbins said his 19-year-old client has no intention of accepting the deal. It is, however, still officially on the table.

Gomez, who turned 15 the day of the Aug. 4, 2007, killings, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and felony murder, one count of attempted murder, along with robbery and related charges.

Six young men were arrested in the execution-style killing of three college-aged friends and wounding of a fourth behind the Mount Vernon School. So far, three defendants have been convicted and two have pleaded guilty to elements of the crime.

While acknowledging Gomez’s presence in the schoolyard that night, Robbins has long maintained his client was a mere bystander. "This did not occur at the hands of Gerardo Gomez, nor at his direction or request," the attorney said today.

But Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Thomas McTigue has long maintained the attack was a group effort. Gomez, he said today, "actively participated in the robbery of the victims in this case."

While not the triggerman, Gomez was an accomplice to murder, both from his role in the overall conspiracy and because the killings "occurred during the course of a felony, specifically a robbery," McTigue said.

Prosecutors allege all six defendants had ties to a violent Central American gang and that the attack was gang-related. But Robbins said in court today that he would seek to bar any evidence or testimony about gang membership or motive, noting the attack began as a robbery. He said it will be "the central issue at trial, to keep the gang stuff out of the case."

The deal the prosecutor’s office has offered is nearly identical to the one another defendant in the case, Shahid Baskerville, accepted late last year. In his plea statement, Baskerville alleged Gomez tried to fire a gun but it jammed. That gun was never recovered. A different gun, which was eventually found, was used to shoot all four victims. Baskerville is expected to testify against Gomez at trial.

But in Baskerville’s original statement to police, he said Gomez played no part in the killing and that there was just one gun, Robbins noted. Baskerville changed his story to secure a better deal from prosecutors, the attorney alleged.

Gomez’s next court date is scheduled for Aug. 13. Meanwhile, prosecutors say they will seek to have Gomez moved from a youth detention house in Hudson County into Essex County jail.